Re: gEDA-user: pcb: active layer helpers

[joeft <joeft@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sounds great!

Joe T

-----Original Message-----
>From: DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Jan 20, 2006 9:05 AM
>To: geda-user@xxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: gEDA-user: pcb: active layer helpers
>
>
>> Be careful not to mix the need for viewing the other side with the
>> need to modify the other side.  What the user wants to observe is
>> often different than what the user wants to control.
>
>If we decide to keep this, I'd make it a settable option.  Or,
>something you can put in your local menu definition.
>
>> Whatever you do, you may want to keep in mind that in the future PCB
>> is likely to need more colors to differentiate between items on the
>> screen,
>
>The functionality is isolated within the lesstif HID so it can do
>pretty much whatever it wants/needs.  At the moment, it just uses a
>color halfway between the regular color and the background color.
>Even without this, the active layer is always drawn on top, and the
>status bar has an indicator (colored, no less) to tell you which is
>the active layer.
>
>Stippled might be useful though.  We'll see how it holds up under real
>use.
>
>> especially if it ever supports more than 8 layers.
>
>It already supports more than 8 layers.  Just, not by default.  I've
>tested it with over 50 layers.  I suspect we'll need to increase the
>default, and add some layer management tools (add/delete/move), in
>order to support editable masks, keep-outs, plating regions, etc.